Across the world, the ‘elbow bump’ is growing in popularity as an alternative to the handshake. In India, people are clamouring for the traditional namaste greeting to supplant the Western gesture. And on Tuesday, the Dutch prime minister told his nation to refrain from shaking hands – slipping up himself moments later when he shook hands with the official standing next to him.

This last example is particularly revealing. For many of us, the handshake is something automatic, an art instilled in us from a young age – and so not so easy to refrain from. But the importance of doing so, at least for a short time, is becoming clearer by the day. Erika Hughes has always been interested in the handshake as a social performance. She considers whether coronavirus might cause us to re-consider our automatic gestures, and change our habits of touch in the longer term